Women Are
Making Good
in War Work
Plane and Ordnance
Firms in This Area
Plan to Hire More
A third of the employes of the two largest war plants in this area are women and the proportion is expected to increase, local executives and personnel managers were told Tuesday noon at the regular war manpower luncheon at the Chamber of Commerce.
G. K. Hammer, personnel manager of the Martin-Nebraska company, said that 30 per cent of the employes are now women and that the Fort Crook plant may be staffed up to 50 or even 60 per cent by women.
Must Replace 2,000
"Selective service is taking men away," Hammer said. "Others are leaving the plant for work on farms. We will have to replace two thousand men within the next year and most of these replacements will be women."
Women make excellent workers, Hammer said. The Martin company is now using them in every department. There are now few operations in the "men only" category and these exist only where the strength and resistance of women are not adequate to the task, and it is impossible to break the job down into several operations requiring less strength.
The Martin company now has women who are certified A welders; there are others in the machine tool shops, operating turret and engine lathes, and still others in final assembly.
Adapt Themselves Quickly
Donald Burdette, personnel manager of the Nebraska Ordnance plant at Mead, said his company was now employing slightly more than 33 per cent women and that in some departments 75 per cent of the employes are women. They are doing work that only a short time ago would have been considered impossible for women, Burdette said.
Some are explosive operators, fork truck operators, working supervisors, quality and safety inspectors. They are qualified, train easily and adapt themselves quickly, Burdette said.
"In general, the women employes are more patriotic and they make fewer complaints than men," Burdette said. "They are more stable. For instance, we are losing a number of men now. They have been construction works. Now that it is spring and those jobs are opening, they are leaving our plant."
Less Turnover
"It is true that there is more absenteeism among women than among men, but there is less turnover and we prefer absenteeism to turnover. At least we do not have to keep training new people."
From now on, Burdette said, most of the new employes will be women.
Chairman of the meeting, general theme of which was "Women in War Plants," was William Parkinson, war manpower commission director of the Omaha-Council Bluffs industrial area.
